Colour and Long takes

Colour
We looked at a few different properties of colour and how to define, describe or create them. Firstly it is worth noting that daylight bulbs are 5200K and Tungsten is 3200, keeping these values correctly white balanced means your colour will be consistent from shot to shot and its extremely important. We looked briefly at the connotations of colours, red love and power, green nature ect. one thing I had not considered as I only make films for myself or similar audiences is that in different cultures colours have different meanings, this adds something to watching foreign films and is something to consider if ever making a film for another culture.

We also looked at the formation of colours, whilst I understood primary and secondary colour wheels I learned that Additive colour mixes are RGB and that Subtractive colour mixes are Magenta, Yellow and Cyan. Finally as far as colour is concerned we looked at the specific meanings and relationships between Value, Hue and Chroma.

Long Takes
We watched 4 films during the lesson and each one specifically showed off the four options when filming specifically long takes;
1.Stationary actor filmed by a stationary camera. (Hunger 2008 McQueen)
2.Stationary actor filmed by a moving camera. (La Haine 1995 Kassovitz)
3.Moving actor filmed by a stationary camera. (What time is it over there? 2001 Tsai)
4.Moving actor filmed by a moving camera. (Elephant 2003 Gus Van Sant)

Hunger is a single conversation that lasts 22 minutes with the first shot lasting over 17 minutes, brilliantly composed, beautifully acted the stationary shot is a tuning point in the film. It offers a contrast to the rest of the film and is one way to film a ling take. As long as the performance and composition are sttrong it shouldn't get boring but the length of the scene adds a realism and emotion because of the sudden break in pace. It is an interesting use of the creative device, perhaps the easiest to physically produce but the hardest to write as an emotional and poignant scene.

La Haine has stunning camera work, the camera dances around the subjects as they stand stationary looking daringly at each other. Whilst the emotional connection between characters is displayed more explicitly the dancing camera work could be distracting.

What time is it over there? lets characters wonder in and out of long stationary shots. The characters actions and the things you do see take on more importance because you dont see everything, the things that you dont see also add a mystery and intrigue to the shots.

Elephant uses a tracking camera that follows characters constantly. This adds a POV and character to identify with in each shot, the identification gained isnt exactly a POV shot but the over shoulder or MCU and tracking show nicely the characters relationships. On the downside the focus and exposure are hard to alter in order to keep the shot high quality.

Im not exactly sure what our ideas are for cinematography yet but we will keep all of these possibilities in mind for our project.

Filmography
Hunger (2008), McQueen S., UK, Ireland, Film4
La Haine (1995), Kassovitz M., France, Canal+
What Time is it Over There? (2001) Tsai M., Tiawan, France, Arena Films , Homegreen Films
Elephant (2003) Sant.G.V., USA., HBO Films , Fine Line Features , Meno Films